More than flesh and blood
by goolcaptain
Summary: Dawn sacrificed herself on Glory's tower. Buffy killed herself through guilt. But there's ALWAYS a way back...


Summary; a happy sequal to Buffy suicide fic. It posed me a real challenge but I hope I've risen to the occasion, I don't think there's an ending where I can't write some sort of joyous comeback.  
Spoilers/Timeline; season six. Please read her story first, in it Dawn sacrifices herself to save the world on Glory's gantry and Buffy kills herself as she's unable to deal with the guilt (lots of people forget that Dawn was willing to do that!). Please note Dawn is 16  
Rating- PG13  
Pairing; Faith/Dawn, Dawn/Buff (emotional only)  
Disclaimer; these characters are not mine and belong purely to Mutant Enemy productions. This is a non profit article  
Distribution; do what you like  
Feedback; what I live for 

More than flesh and blood

Faith stuck the sword into the demons chest with all her might. It looked surprised for a moment, a startled expression in all eight of it's eyes until they disintegrated as she tore the blade upwards, slicing it's head in half from the bottom up. It fell to the floor, cut down the middle like a banana split.  
D'hoffryn picked himself up and brushed himself down, struggling to maintain some dignity. Faith leveled the sword at his throat. He looked at her with uncertainty.   
"You owe me" she said evenly. "You know what I want. Bring her back, bring Buffy back!"  
He shook his head as if genuinely sad. "No, impossible. I can twist reality, bend dimensions, reverse time but over those born of flesh and blood I have no domain. They live and die due to their own choices and powers beyond my control" He was gone before she could even think to reply.  
"Son of a bitch!" she exclaimed.

She flinched instinctively as the police cruiser rounded the corner. The cops passed her by with a long searching glance in her direction but it had more to do with her leather trousers than any professional interest.  
"Relax" she chided herself. "They're not after you any more" She sometimes wondered if there was anything the Council couldn't do. She had a few parking tickets they could probably take care off, it was a real bitch trying to park the geekmobile. She'd loved Joyce dearly but she'd had lousy taste in cars. She guessed it had been practical for her job at the gallery. She also had a library book that had been sitting in the bottom of her old wardrobe in Boston since the fifth grade but that was probably beyond even the Councils' influence. Getting a convicted murderer released scot-free was one thing, messing with the library service something else entirely.  
1630 Revello was in darkness. Willow and Tara were out at Spellcasters' Anonymous, sponsoring Amy through her twelve step programme. At least in prison there was always someone to come home to, you were never alone.  
Nor was she here. Miss Kitty sidled up to her and rubbed herself appreciatively against her legs. Faith gathered her up in her arms and stroked her. At least someone was always glad to see her. The cat that walked alone, indeed.  
Or not. "Getting kinda fat girl" Faith observed rubbing the purring cat's swollen tummy. She wondered what they would call the kittens.  
She hesitated before entering the house. It never really felt like home, she was always the cuckoo in the nest. And the real owners were all gone, all safely in the ground. She felt like a pretender, a thief in the night, guiltily inheriting all that was theirs, both materially and in other ways.  
She spotted it as soon as she entered, the demon crouching in the shadows of the corner, low, curled on all fours, waiting to strike. She cast Miss Kitty aside and kicked the coffee table at it, knocking it sprawling further back into the dark recess. In a moment she was upon it, her knife poised to strike.  
"F...f...faith?"   
"Dear God" she thought. The knife slipped from her hand and clattered to the floor. Faith's arms embraced her, forcing their way through her trembling and frantic struggling, enveloping the naked female form before her.  
"Don't hurt me!" she pleaded.  
D'hoffryn's phrase cycled through Faith's mind again and again "Over those born of flesh and blood I have no domain".  
But then not everyone was.  
Miss Kitty walked up and rubbed herself affectionately against Dawn's bare legs.

"FAITH!"  
She was there in a moment, as quick as slayerspeed could carry her. Dawn was sitting upright in bed, lashed with sweat, shaking and wan. Miss Kitty had retreated to the corner, her back arched, wary.  
"It was here again!"  
Faith mopped Dawn's sweatsoaked brow with her hand. She pulled back the covers and slipped in beside her, sitting her on her lap and wrapping her hands around her waist.  
"It wasn't Buffy, Dawnie, she's gone. It was just a dream"  
She felt Dawn gradually relax and lean backwards into her embrace. She had long since lost her heart to the youngest Summer's girl, part sister, part child, part lover to Faith who desperately needed to be needed herself. She'd always wanted a sibling, for a moment jealousy of Buffy reared its head again but she banished it quickly. It was so easy to be at peace here, she never felt more content than in Dawn's arms.  
"Faith" Willow beckoned to her from the doorway. Faith reluctantly swapped places with Tara and followed Willow out in to the hallway. What was this? Surely these two were the last to object to her and Dawn's relationship? Or perhaps that was it, were they jealous?  
Willow opened her hand to reveal a softly glowing crystal. "This is a remnant stone" she explained. "It picks up residual traces of ghostly activity"  
Faith looked at Dawn, falling asleep, her head cradled in Tara's lap. "She's not dreaming is she?"  
Willow shook her head.

She opened her eyes. The world slowly took focus.  
"Buffy?"  
She tried to speak. It didn't come. She felt weird, as if she was trapped in Faith's body again.  
"B?"  
She sprang to her feet and assumed a fighting stance. Instinctively Faith did the same.  
"Buffy, is that you?"  
"Willow?" she could talk. Faith backed away as Buffy took in her surroundings. They were all there. Willow, Tara, surrounded by heaps of spell books and magic paraphenalia. Xander, Faith with Dawn semi-hiding behind her, Anya, a girl she didn't know, Warren...  
Warren!  
"You put my soul in the Buffybot!"  
They nodded, looking guilty. Xander picked up a mirror and Buffy examined her reflection in it for a very long time. "We had to Buff, your real body was gone and your soul wasn't at peace"  
"OK, that's our deal done" announced Warren. "Let's go!" He took Katrina by the hand and started to drag her outside.  
"Warren!" she exclaimed breaking his grip "Don't you want to see if it worked?"  
"No, I don't want to be here if it didn't! I'll be in the car!"  
Katrina picked up her coat and prepared to follow him outside. "How do you put up with that jerk?" Anya asked her.  
She shrugged "I love him". She walked outside as he blew the horn impatiently.   
Faith led Dawn forward by the hand. She felt that she was losing something precious but gaining at the same time. The right path was never the easiest, something she'd also learned in prison. Dawn seemed more afraid than any of them.  
"Buffy, is that really you?"  
Buffy was still consumed by her reflection. "Couldn't you have made me taller?"  
Everyone laughed, everyone but Dawn. Buffy looked at her and extended her hand.  
"It's me sweetie. It really is!"  
"But...you're a machine" Dawn objected. She wanted to go forward but looked unwilling to let herself go, to accept ther her sister was really back.  
"Yes" Buffy examined her perfect plastic hands. "I'm a machine. But it's me in here, the real me. There's more to humanity than flesh and blood"  
Dawn took her hand. The sisters embraced.

Buffy looked at the stars. The noise of the party was so loud it made them seem to tremble in the night sky. She was glad to get outside and find some quiet.  
Giles joined her. "Don't you like the cake?"  
She shook her head and proffered him her piece which he accepted. "My taste buds aren't quite right yet. Willow says she can fix them. At the minute the only taste I crave is Spike"  
She smiled as Giles choked on her cake, deciding not to finish the rest. "I've been fighting unimagineable evil for six years and that's still the most appalling thing I've ever heard!"  
"At least I don't mensturate any more"  
He nodded, determined not to be abashed. "Do you still have to go to the bathroom?"  
"Oh yeah, but for some reason I don't seem to take so long in there anymore"  
"What was it like?"  
"The bathroom?"  
"The afterlife"  
She was quiet for a moment. "Imagine the best feeling you ever had in your entire life, imagine being embraced by everyone you ever loved at the same time and knowing perfect peace and contentment for eternity"  
She looked at him with emphasis. "Whatever you can imagine it doesn't even come close!"  
He paused but the question was inevitable. "Then how could you bear to come back to us?"  
"Because I knew Dawn needed me. Don't ask me how, I just knew..."  
"And?"  
"And mom said it wasn't my time. That we'd be together eventually but not yet". Robots didn't cry. Warren had made her so she wouldn't, crying was blackmail, good girlfriends didn't cry. But whatever it was, clear hydraulic fluid, fake saliva, lubricating agent, it welled up through her eyes and down her cheeks in a steady stream of tears, staining Giles' cardigan as he clutched her to him.


End file.
